A former Carmel Valley man who murdered his neighbors in a property dispute lost his bid for freedom or a new trial on Tuesday.

Citing "substantial evidence," an appellate panel upheld the conviction of John F. Kenney, 77, who is serving a sentence of life without possibility of parole for the 2007 murders of Mel and Elizabeth Grimes.

Barring new evidence, the unanimous ruling effectively means Kenney will die in prison. Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon said Kenney has no automatic right to appeal and it would be rare for the state Supreme Court to grant review if he did.

"The only right to have his appeal heard has occurred," Brannon said, adding the ruling was "gratifying but not surprising."

Kenney's appeal, filed by appointed counsel Kyle Gee of Oakland, argued that trial Judge Stephen Sillman erred in his instructions to the jury regarding self-defense laws. Gee, who did not return a call Tuesday, said the instructions effectively negated Kenney's claims that he was protecting himself and his property when he shot the couple.

The three-judge panel from the 6th District Court of Appeal said the judge's instructions were supported by evidence at the 2008 trial or agreed to in tactical moves by Kenney's attorney. Any possible error, it said, was "harmless" given the weight of the evidence.

The panel rejected Gee's argument that Sillman should not have admitted a DVD found in Kenney's house that advised viewers to strike "First and Finish" in threatening situations. The panel said the DVD, coupled with crime-scene evidence and a 911 recording that captured the violence, supported Brannon's contention that Kenney was the "initial aggressor" when he shot the local defense attorney and his wife.

An initial aggressor cannot claim self-defense unless they subsequently withdraw from the conflict and the other party uses unreasonable force.

The murders were the culmination of years of acrimony between the neighbors, who shared a driveway on Hitchcock Canyon Road. By Jan. 29, 2007, the feud had dissolved into a war about a 10-foot-by-4-foot sliver of land the Grimeses had to cross to get to their carport.

At dusk that evening, the couple arrived home to find Kenney had blocked their access with a large boulder. Elizabeth Grimes was on the driveway summoning help from an emergency dispatcher and Mel Grimes was trying to shatter the rock with a sledgehammer when Kenney approached from his house with a gun tucked in his belt.

The 911 recording captured Kenney ordering the Grimeses off his property and Elizabeth Grimes yelling "Get off," and "He's got a gun" before shots ring out. The couple is heard professing their love to each other before Mel Grimes died. Elizabeth Grimes was airlifted and died en route to a Bay Area hospital.

The opinion, written by Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian with Justices Eugene Premo and Franklin Elia concurring, noted that both victims were in "probable defensive positions" when Kenney admittedly shot them. He fired a coup de grace at close range into Elizabeth Grimes' back.

The jury convicted Kenney, then 72, of second-degree murder for killing Mel Grimes and first-degree murder for the slaying of his wife. Sillman sentenced him to life without possibility of parole.

The appellate panel granted Kenney's challenge to two $10,000 fines imposed. All parties agree only one of the fines should have been imposed.

In arguments presented last week, Gee maintained Kenney's trial attorney, Thomas Nolan, provided ineffective counsel by conceding several rulings regarding self-defense instructions. The appellate panel ruled they were tactical decisions that cannot be used as grounds for a reversal.

Most ironic, Brannon said, was Kenney's objection to an agreement between the prosecutor and Nolan that property rights were not an issue at trial. Nolan withdrew an initial request that the jury be instructed on the right to use "reasonable force" to eject someone from private property.

Brannon said Sillman asked the attorneys to stipulate so the jury wouldn't waste time on an irrelevant real estate case and Nolan agreed.

The prosecutor said he had in hand evidence the victims had a legal easement over the property. Even without it, he said, Kenney would have had a hard time arguing "executing someone is reasonable force."